Page 26 | I just read a terrible book

Orangeis · 2023-02-06T11:29:15+00:00

Bring me back, B A Paris. What a load of absolute tosh. A man's partner dissapears, 6 years later he gets with her sister and lives with her. The big twist is.....the new girlfriend is actually the missing sister. He didn't realise this as she had a different hair do. That's hours of my life I'll never get back. I feel like taking the book in to the back garden and burning the bugger. What's your worst book and why?

TheObstinateHeadstrongGirl · 09/02/2023 15:21

MissHavishamsMouldyOldCake · 09/02/2023 15:12

Just can't picture it. None of them give off big reader vibes.

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What do big reader vibes look like

MissHavishamsMouldyOldCake · 09/02/2023 15:23

TheObstinateHeadstrongGirl · 09/02/2023 15:21

What do big reader vibes look like

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oh just forget I said anything.

I can feel the unfolding tediousness.

SirChenjins · 09/02/2023 15:52

I think Louis gives off massive reader vibes.

crispinglovershighkick · 09/02/2023 15:53

pollyhemlock · 09/02/2023 08:34

One of my least favourite plot devices is when a character is given a delightful pet, usually a cat or dog, and you just know that about half way through the book this charming animal will be horribly killed. This happens in, for example, books by Penelope Lively, Zadie Smith and one of the early Ruth Galloway books by Elly Griffiths. Tends to put me off a book when this happens.

Yes, I hate this. Sometimes it's a baby. It's lazy manipulation, you can see it coming a mile away.

Kanaloa · 09/02/2023 16:05

How does any thread end up being about Harry and Meghan 😂 you could post saying ‘my colleague always does massive farts in the lift’ and you can bet someone would reply ‘type of thing Meghan Markle would do.’

And it’s always the people who proclaim not to care about them/people who don’t understand why anyone is interested. Like, you’re the most interested! Obsessed…

thing47 · 09/02/2023 16:12

Please, please, please let's not derail this rather wonderful thread any further!

lemonsaretheonlyfruit · 09/02/2023 16:22

A good friend recommended
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

She raved and raved about it so I bought it. Absolutely hated it. I have no idea why I ploughed through to the end - but I do remember thinking at the time - well x said it was brilliant so I should keep going as it's clearly going to get brilliant. It never did. She loved everything that I hated about it. I have never told her though. Vampires featured heavily.

Leirvassbu · 09/02/2023 16:31

lemonsaretheonlyfruit · 09/02/2023 16:22

A good friend recommended
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

She raved and raved about it so I bought it. Absolutely hated it. I have no idea why I ploughed through to the end - but I do remember thinking at the time - well x said it was brilliant so I should keep going as it's clearly going to get brilliant. It never did. She loved everything that I hated about it. I have never told her though. Vampires featured heavily.

Similar happened to me. Friend absolutely loved it - but she was really into fantasy and vampires and so on.
I absolutely loathed it. I just hated the language used in the dialogue which didn't seem to fit with the setting.
There were all kinds of far-fetched plots and sub-plots and sub-sub-plots.

ReneBumsWombats · 09/02/2023 16:35

Vampires are very Marmite, I find. Apart from the original Dracula, which is obviously a masterpiece, it's a genre that's generally very good at delivering what its audience likes. If that's not you, move along.

lemonsaretheonlyfruit · 09/02/2023 16:41

@Leirvassbu

I'm glad you agree. I thought everyone might say that they loved it.

It wasn't just that it was about Vampires. It was everything (though admittedly the vampires did put me off)

GloomyDarkness · 09/02/2023 16:45

lemonsaretheonlyfruit · 09/02/2023 16:22

A good friend recommended
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

She raved and raved about it so I bought it. Absolutely hated it. I have no idea why I ploughed through to the end - but I do remember thinking at the time - well x said it was brilliant so I should keep going as it's clearly going to get brilliant. It never did. She loved everything that I hated about it. I have never told her though. Vampires featured heavily.

I think I did this to DH with Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan and then later books

To me it was a blend of film noir and sci-fi which I loved.

The main protagonist while extremely violent in a very staked against him word had strong moral code and many of his mentors were women with different backgrounds and motivations and he was basally given no choice but to solve a rich jackass murder by said victim.

I hated the TV show - seemed to miss all that nuance amalgamated many of the female mentors/drivers and I couldn't get past first few episodes - I think DH saw it very like the TV show creators.

GloomyDarkness · 09/02/2023 16:53

Apart from the original Dracula, which is obviously a masterpiece

I didn't like it - and I suspect it was my reading style it slowly build tension and I tend to read fast and don't tend to like diary entry/letter style - Andrea K Höst Touchstone series is only case with diary entries that I think I've ever liked.

DD2 got on very well with an e-mail reading - something MN alerted me to - sends out the entry on the date it say it is in book - slow build of tension.

By contrast Frankenstein wasn't what I expected either but I found it very compelling.

DorritLittle · 09/02/2023 17:04

I loved Dracula (and Buffy). Have never got on with anything else vampirey. Bought The Historian and didn't get past the first few chapters.

AinmÁlainn · 09/02/2023 17:07

Just remembered another one, John Boyne, The Echo Chamber. I don't understand why it was nominated for a comedic writing award.

hothands · 09/02/2023 17:47

All the talk of vampires has reminded me how terrible Twilight was. Pages and pages where nothing happened.

Also A Discovery of Witches. It really pisses me off when an author takes an established monster/supernatural creature and turns them into something so unrecognisable they should have called them something else. Going out in sunlight. Not drinking human blood. The 'vampire' in A Discovery of Witches did yoga ffs.

Those authors should stick to writing crappy fanfic on tumblr.

OneFrenchEgg · 09/02/2023 18:07

AinmÁlainn · 09/02/2023 17:07

Just remembered another one, John Boyne, The Echo Chamber. I don't understand why it was nominated for a comedic writing award.

I have this to read and can't remember why I bought it now

AinmÁlainn · 09/02/2023 18:16

I listened to it rather than paper copy (almost all my reading these days is audio books) so maybe there's something in the written form that works but it didn't work as an audio book at all. I actually did finish it because I thought there had to be something I was missing/about to get.

Mind you, the screen writing/text format doesn't work at all for the audio book of The Ink Black Heart either. The rest of the story is enough to keep it going though (but JKR, Queen that she is, needs an editor brave enough to tell her to cut a few pages).

pollyhemlock · 09/02/2023 22:11

hothands · 09/02/2023 17:47

All the talk of vampires has reminded me how terrible Twilight was. Pages and pages where nothing happened.

Also A Discovery of Witches. It really pisses me off when an author takes an established monster/supernatural creature and turns them into something so unrecognisable they should have called them something else. Going out in sunlight. Not drinking human blood. The 'vampire' in A Discovery of Witches did yoga ffs.

Those authors should stick to writing crappy fanfic on tumblr.

Twilight is awful. I got about two thirds of the way through then had to give up because her feebleness so annoyed me . She kept falling over!

Notmybloodymonkeys · 10/02/2023 05:59

SnakeOiler · 06/02/2023 14:15

I can’t remember the name of it but many years ago I read a book about a
man who left his wife, set up a new life abroad with a new woman who was totally accepting of the fact he’d left his wife and children after the death of their baby son.

the twist was he’d killed the son by leaving him unattended in the bath and watched him drown from the doorway. And he’d done it because he believed the son wasn’t his, and was his best mate’s because he’d once caught him his best mate anally raping his wife but thought it was consensual sex.

it was all bloody mental.

I laughed at how crap this sounded when I read this post the other day but now I think this is probably the book I’ve just started reading! So far husband has just reappeared after 25 years and we’re getting his story in flashbacks - he’s currently working in a hostel in France and has just stolen a dead man’s passport. It’s by John Marrs who’s already been mentioned on this thread. It’s not great. 😂

FancyFanny · 11/02/2023 09:38

SirChenjins · 09/02/2023 15:52

I think Louis gives off massive reader vibes.

Camilla looks quite keen on reading!

royalreadingroom.uk

WGACA · 11/02/2023 22:44

Mintakan · 06/02/2023 12:54

I loved A Walk in the Woods … can’t understand how anyone could say it was boring, it was hilarious! I also love The Paper Palace.

SPQR has been on my kindle for two years. I manage to read a few pages and then remember why I stopped the last time.

The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose. It had such potential but the ending was a car crash.

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes. It was like running a marathon wearing high heels.

I loved The Giver of Stars!

I enjoyed The Paper Palace (except the ending)

The Midnight Library, Elinor Oliphant and The Crawdads were ok.

I didn’t enjoy Thursday Murder Club at all. I loathed Nine Perfect Strangers.

50 Shades I didn’t get past the first couple of pages.

Book Lovers was my worst read.

TheObstinateHeadstrongGirl · 11/02/2023 22:45

The Giver of Stars os one of my favourite books and I wish they’d make it into a movie!

lemonsaretheonlyfruit · 12/02/2023 00:48

Oh I loved the Giver of stars and thought the same re film. I heard someone bought the film rights?

I did also really like the Paper Palace but not as much as a couple of friends did.

I was really sad when I finished Eleanor Oliphant. I loved it.

2 favourites of late have been Small Pleasures and Lessons in Chemistry

I thought 9 Perfect Strangers was terrible. I also read Liane Moriaty's last book which was mainly about a very competitive Tennis family. I loved her earlier ones but the last 3 of hers I have read I really haven't enjoyed.

Kanaloa · 12/02/2023 08:45

pollyhemlock · 09/02/2023 22:11

Twilight is awful. I got about two thirds of the way through then had to give up because her feebleness so annoyed me . She kept falling over!

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I agree twilight is awful but it’s quite an interesting read if you consider it with the author’s religious/political views in mind. I read it as a teen and only saw vampires and werewolves. The Mormonism and racism and all the rest just went right over my head. Very odd read.

pollyhemlock · 12/02/2023 10:05

@Kanaloa Yes, I only read it ( or tried to read it ) because I was working with children’s books and thought I ought to find out what they were all so enthusiastic about. Clearly I was the wrong age to appreciate it. Loved Buffy though!